ProgPOW author steps down as Core Scientific CTO, vows to implement algorithm on Ethereum

Kristy-Leigh Minehan, the author of ProgPOW, stepped down as CTO of Core Scientific to focus on ensuring the disputed algorithm gets implemented on Ethereum.

Core Scientific loses its CTO, ProgPOW gains a leader.

Hours ago, Kristy-Leigh Minehan announced she was stepping down as CTO to focus on ensuring the ProgPOW algorithm is implemented on Ethereum.

"Kristy-Leigh is a world leader in blockchain technologies due to her experience and expertise. She believes ProgPoW will be critical technology for the compute industry as a whole. To fully dedicate herself to ProgPOW, Kristy is leaving Core Scientific. She leaves a strong team of talented and experienced engineers and we are committed to ensuring uninterrupted high quality service to all our customers."

ProgPOW is an algorithm aimed at making proof-of-work mining more egalitarian by leveling the performance differences between ASICs, GPUs, and FPGAs.

Detractors, such as Ethereum Classic executive director Bob Summerwill, cited conflicts of interest between Core Scientific-a billion-dollar blockchain and AI infrastructure company-and the proposed algorithm change.

If ProgPOW were implemented it would likely render millions in research and development redundant.

In a conversation with CryptoSlate, it seems Kristy-Leigh Minehan is willing to let go of her position at Core Scientific for the benefit of the Ethereum community.

"Being a leader means putting others before yourself. Core Scientific has nothing to do with ProgPoW, and it's important that people focus on the technical merits of the algorithm," Minehan said to CryptoSlate.

Ethereum is in for a tense few months as the debate around ProgPOW continues.